The Scarlet Plague by Jack London

In the year 2073, civilization is only a distant memory. Sixty years earlier, a mysterious and unstoppable disease known as the Scarlet Plague swept across the world, killing millions within days and reducing humanity to scattered tribes struggling to survive. Among the survivors is James Howard Smith, once a respected university professor. Now an old man in a primitive world, he tells his grandsons the story of the plague that destroyed modern society—the panic, the collapse of cities, and the rapid fall of human progress. But to the children, raised in a savage new age, his stories of universities, technology, and organized society seem almost impossible to believe. Jack London’s The Scarlet Plague is a haunting and thought-provoking tale about the fragility of civilization, the power of disease, and the enduring struggle of humanity to rebuild after catastrophe.